Gillan - Glory Road
#422
by Paul Zickler
October 1980
Gillan
Glory Road
Genre: British Metal
Allen’s Rating:: 3 out of 5
Paul’s Rating: 3
Highlights:
On the Rocks
If You Believe Me
I listened to most of this album without looking up any information about it. My initial response was these guys wear their influences on their sleeves. They must have listened to a bunch of ‘70’s bands like Deep Purple, Sugarloaf, Black Sabbath, and Golden Earring. The guitarist likes to show off, reminiscent of a guy who plugs in a Flying V in a guitar shop and clears the room (Listen to the first 2 minutes of “No Easy Way” if you don’t believe me). They’re very fond of playing unison riffs -- sometimes even the vocals follow the same melody as the guitar and bass at the same time. I was going to point out how ending 6 of the first 8 lines of a song with the title was not good lyric writing (“Sleeping on the Job”). Finally, I was going to mention that this was music that longed to be played at far higher volume than I’m willing to play it.
Later, I actually looked up “Gillan band” online, and realized I needed to change my entire review. Turns out, these ARE the guys from Deep Purple. Ian Gillan was lead vocalist for the British metal pioneers during their glory years. Guitarist Bernie Tormé played with Ozzie. These weren’t some rocker dudes paying homage to their influences, these were the influencers, past their moment, trying desperately to catch the next wave. They actually did a decent job of it, at least in England, where this album sold really well. We’ve never heard of them over here, and I maintain that much of that comes from the flaws I recognized on my first listen.
The best/worst example of this is “On The Rocks,” which makes for a pretty fun game of spot-the-influence. Sugarloaf organ intro, Pink Floyd sound effect voices, Van Halen bassline, Sabbath lyrical content, Roger Daltrey vocal punch, Kansas keyboard instrumental break, and the aforementioned penchant for unison riffing (someone has to know what band they stole this from, I just don’t have the metal chops to name them). Finally, there’s the song’s final chord, played by several hands on piano, which resonates for many seconds on the fadeout. I checked, and yes, it is the same E major that ends “A Day In the Life.” So, yeah, these guys are not breaking any new ground. Maybe American audiences were already tired of the shtick, which the Brits still found gear or fab or whatever the 1980 equivalent was.
It’s not all terrible, in fact “If You Believe Me” is pretty decent British bar band blues, a kind of John Mayall meets Judas Priest thing I could listen to again if it was two minutes shorter. All these guys can play (even if Mr. Tormé has a tendency to play too much), and the arrangements mostly remain interesting even when the song ideas don’t. I just think I’d like this album better if I thought it was recorded by some dudes who listened to a bunch of early metal and decided they could do it too, instead of some dudes who were part of that scene and just trying way too hard.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4wNuXolUjgvZun8pV9H2sh?si=P0SmD-bASPOoCbwZ75z4Cg
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